It’s good to have reminders of what is and isn’t private.
Google accounts aren’t “free”.
Yea I watched the video today and it was a good wake up for me to continue my process to move from google. I have started some time ago already but have been doing it in increments. I still have an android phone and moving away from it will be a pain.
I've been following this and he keeps making so many mistakes. Stop talking to the police, bro. Stop trying to get the shop owner on camera.
File lawsuits against the company (I know he tried and the cop refused to issue the summons illegally, so you do it again after filing a complaint against the police), and file every lawsuit possible outside of that district.
But that's not good views for YouTube. He just keeps giving them more ammunition to go after him.
Lawsuits do no good when they are invisible. He's exposed insane police and judge corruption that would be swept under the rug becuase of no exposure. If utah decides they dont like you or me, we would be fucked, in jail for made up lies, becuase we dont have millions of people watching.
Yes he has also done some dumb shit for sure.
After he got forcibly muted by court I believe he finally spoke to lawyers and then he won pretty quick.
I suspect he was playing 4D chess, and decided to show what your chances are in the system if you play it by the book and alone, which most people who can't afford a lawyer would do, and what also the thieves relied on. They told the victim directly try to sue us and you'll end up paying more in lawyer costs.
Given the US is currently rotting from the top down and the bottom up I wonder if this guy will get lucky and find some help from the middle that isn't yet so corrupt.
He has a civil rights lawyer with a youtube channel helping him on the criminal charges and has hired some other lawyer to help with the civil charges (hence the move for those to federal court). So he's getting there.
The lesson here is not to trust Google or other non-encrypted storage with your stuff. There are email providers that are more protective of your stuff, but more than that: don't store everything in one place. That way if one account is compromised, not everything is exposed. And American companies are more likely to share your data than European ones.
Yes I did say that but thank you for reiterating.
it would seem their whole legal system is as corrupt as their government
I live here, and yes, it's corrupt.
It has been for at least 50 years, now most of all. It's not as blatant as some countries re open bribery, but our "news" sources have been owned by the bourgeoisie since at least the 90s, every year they bought up more and more smaller, local news sources; now only a few remain, all firmly under control.
Abuses of power are rampant, just not reported often. So we have more room for Kanye coverage, two-page spread
~~Don't~~ be evil
Yeah, again, even if they are evil in general, I can't necessarily blame them here. They were complying with the law.
And who makes the law in the empire?
Exactly. And if the law doesn't suit their needs, change it until it does.
Story is interesting, the video is a chaotic abomination of bad storytelling.
LOL yeah it is.
the local police dept and criminal justice system has been colluding with the criminals (all members of the local Mormon church)
Sounds about on par for the corrupt, death cult religionists. Quick! Someone steal their magic underwear and ransom it back to them for the LEGOs!
Thank goodness we're finally safe, everyone! I feel so incredibly safe I can barely sleep at night — partly from relief, partly from the faint red glow of the dashboard camera evaluating my facial expressions for signs of independent thought. Remember when driving was about getting somewhere? Now the car watches you, the road watches you, the toll booth photographs you, and somewhere an algorithm decides whether your blinker-to-lane-change ratio indicates sufficient loyalty to remain a licensed citizen. And those anti-distraction cameras! You're no longer trusted to glance at a road sign without the system assuming you're filming a TikTok. The camera knows. The camera always knows. And the camera, unlike you, never had a stressful Tuesday.
I also adore the financial supervision. Every coffee I buy with my card is lovingly noted and stored in case someone - anyone - someday needs to review my caffeine patterns for national security purposes. Two espressos before 9 AM? Possible instability. Four beers Saturday? Risk factor. Thirteen emergency Toblerones during tax season? Irrefutable character assessment.
My phone tracks my location so faithfully I couldn't match its dedication if I tried. It knows I went to the pharmacy Thursday. It knows I took the scenic route Friday. It probably knows I stood outside the bakery six minutes deciding whether to treat myself and walked away empty-handed - proving to whichever algorithm monitors such things that I possess both self-discipline and poor decision-making skills simultaneously.
Facial recognition cameras mean I no longer suffer the indignity of walking through a city anonymously like some 2003 peasant. I'm identified, timestamped, and filed - because a free citizen moving through public space unnoticed is clearly a missed opportunity for database enrichment.
But here's my absolute favorite part. All this magnificent safety infrastructure - every camera, every log, every database, every tracking system - it's all in the hands of whoever happens to be in government this season. And governments change. Today's well-meaning bureaucrat administering your data with careful oversight is tomorrow's populist demagogue who noticed you donated to the wrong cause, attended the wrong protest, and Googled the wrong thing on a Tuesday afternoon. Maybe you were researching a school project. Maybe you were just curious. Doesn't matter — the search history doesn't care about context, and neither will they.
And the beauty of the pitch? Nobody ever said "we'd like to watch everything you do forever." They said "safety". One word, carrying all the weight, answering all questions, and conveniently foreclosing further discussion. Safety from what? Don't worry about it. Who controls it? Interesting. Can you influence it? Adorable that you'd ask. The safest person alive is someone in a padded cell under constant supervision. Magnificent safety record. Very low satisfaction. But completely safe - until the warden changes.
Some jack off corrupt podunk cop shop can clearly ubpoena your entire life if you piss off the wrong person, then fabricate charges or create circumstances to fuck your life. This is here, now. Reclaim your digital sovereignty from big tech...
For a series of incidents that have gathered international attention, it interesting to see the police and legal system double down on corruption. It like internationally advertising how crooked the cops are and how corrupt the legal system is to everyone. Do you want tourists to never visit? Because that is how you get tourists to not visit.
So is the youtuber the one who got his lego stolen? Or is he just a journalist reporting on this story?
Ben is a YouTube entertainer that found out about this situation. He’s more activist than journalist. I think the original owner sold the collection to Ben.
The original owner didn't sell it to anyone. It was on consignment with Bricks n Minifigs. Hence the whole issue to begin with.
Ed Mansell consigned a massive LEGO Star Wars collection to the Salem Bricks & Minifigs store in 2023; payments later stopped and inventory allegedly vanished.
The franchise collapsed in 2024, new owners took over, and both sides disputed whether the LEGO sets were still in the store.
Bryan Mansell sought help, leading YouTuber Reckless Ben to investigate, confront BAM Corporate, and release viral videos in 2026.
Chaos followed: arrests, leaked police footage, conspiracy theories, and over $500k raised for Bryan.
The Gormans sued BAM Corporate; BAM Corporate filed a TRO, gag order, and a federal RICO lawsuit against Reckless Ben and others. That legal action against Ben was an egregious overreach. Couldn't post anything, talk about anything to go huge distances from any BAM store in existence. RICO lawsuit is like what you charge mobsters with.
The case moved to federal court in June 2026, with multiple civil and criminal proceedings still ongoing.
The rules seem to be so loose and open to interpretation around privacy etc. What makes self hosted data different? Surely that's not a major barrier to big tech, the government, the lawmakers etc.?
If they really wanted to, I'm sure they could just decide, "as of today we can take your self hosted data, so we will swing by at 4pm to collect it". 4pm comes, they are at your door, what are you gonna do? They come and take your data, you know it's wrong, what are you gonna do?
I just worry that even the holy grail of privacy, i.e. self hosted data, is going to be of little consequence to them. If people want your data bad enough, they will do wherever is needed to get it. Change laws? No problem. Reduce rights? Yep we're in it. And so on.
It seems like the only truly safe way to store your data is by not putting it anywhere other than in your head.
What makes self hosted data different?
You can't be compelled to testify against yourself.
4pm comes, they are at your door, what are you gonna do?
If they have a warrant, they can have it. It's encrypted anyway. If they don't have a warrant and try to take it by force, it's not admissible in court anyway. Let em have it.
I just worry that even the holy grail of privacy, i.e. self hosted data, is going to be of little consequence to them.
It's outside of their control. Nothing they can do. Encryption is legal.
E: edited for clarity.
Nothing they can do. Encryption is legal.
Until the change laws so that you have to hand over keys, passwords etc.
Passwords are protected under the 5th Amendment, as it's something "from your mind" that would fall under self-incriminating. Hence why people say if you're at a protest with your phone put it into lockdown mode so you have to input a code/password to open it as they can legally force you to use your thumb/face to unlock it.
We're pretty fucked up as a nation right now, but in order to repeal or nullify a previous amendment you'd have to get a fuckton of states or representatives to agree and we literally can't agree on shit, so it'll never happen (Hell, Prohibition is literally the only amendment we've ever repealed in 250 years).
No law can revoke that and you'd have an easy case if someone did force you to give passwords.
What was the value of the Lego collection in this scandal? 200k? It's wild just how far people are willing to go over what's ultimately not even enough money to retire off of, and only a couple of years' living expenses in some cities
Sounds like they've been successfully getting away with this sort of thing for a long time. So in the long run, probably way more money.
Oh ive been following this. I said to myself from the get go he should not be using any big tech products at all. This is what happens.
This is the first I've heard of the situation so I could be wrong, but he was introduced as a youtuber. If YouTube (a big tech product) is the source of his fame and income, isn't it silly to say he shouldn't be using any big tech products at all?
There is obviously room for compromise and nuance, like limiting the info he gives them, but I don't think that's what you're advocating for
Damn, I hadn't heard about this but that video is a wild ride...
If someone out there still thought the cops was the good guys, this is mainstream enough that its going to open some eyes to the belief that all cops are bad cops.
We've been saying how corrupt police are and how they are like a gang that sticks up for themselves first and foremost. Now the youth get to experience that second hand in a way that the public can't confuse them about race issues or make it about issues anything other than what it is.
I know its stupid for reckless Ben to not use a lawyer but this way we get to see straight up every avenue they use to try to abuse their power.
Not this again. Again without a proper explanation so you have to watch a whole bunch of videos. No.
Am I wrong or is $100k not even money enough for how big this scandal has been?
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
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